On Saturday 4th February 2023, Colchester came out with pride to defend a drag queen story hour event for children at Colchester library. The far-right conspiracy theorists had intended to picket the library and generally harass anyone going in with their cries of ‘grooming’ and ‘child abuse’. Fortunately, the people of Colchester came out to oppose them in a counter-protest that saw the far-right far outnumbered. Even on such short-notice, the story time, narrated by drag queen An Nemia (drag queen names are always hilarious, I love it), was able to go ahead as planned.
On Friday 3rd, the callout was made across social media that the far right conspiracy theorists planned to target drag queen story time yet again. The targeting of drag queen story events has been a common tactic of fascists across Britain and the US recently. It was only in August of last year that we attended a counter-protest in Norwich for the same reason. This all happened among a Britain-wide campaign of hate and fearmongering, as every city and town on Aida H Dee’s drag queen story hour tour was targeted in a 2 month period. This period also saw greater collaboration between so-called ‘Gender Criticals’ (or TERFs) and the traditional far-right. On this occasion, the fascists protesting are part of a small group of yellow card waving conspiracy theorists (the “Yellow Boards”), whose most recent venture was to disrupt a Colchester council committee meeting discussing how to make the city more sustainable, declaring climate change a hoax. Oh, and they’re anti-vaxxers too, because of course they are. Whilst groups like East Anglia Anarchist Federation, Trans Activism UK and Colchester Pride all made public callouts on social media for numbers to counter-protest this threat, I believe it was primarily the personal connections the LGBTQ+ community have in Colchester and Essex that allowed for people to come out in such large numbers on such short notice. With Twitter going the way of the dodo, and otherwise becoming a more hostile place for progressives since Elon Musk’s takeover, it is our more traditional, interpersonal ties to each other that are more important than ever before.
On the day of the event, by 10am that morning, a significant number of counter-protestors had already taken up space outside the library to provide a safe pathway for parents and children attending the story time. Banners and flags were all prominently on display in a show of dazzling diversity of colour that contrasted with the uniformly yellow boards, who, by that point, were yet to be seen. Of course, not everyone who shows up as an ‘ally’ has pure motives. The Mayor showed up for a quick photo opportunity before quickly scarpering and the SWP (Socialist Workers Party) were there as always trying to peddle their newspapers, handing out banners and trying to sign people up for their cause. Using a counter-protest as an opportunity to recruit and sell newspapers is not allyship, nor do we want allyship from rape apologists ( Google DuckDuckGo ‘Comrade Delta’ for more information). When one of our comrades was approached to sign up, they tossed the clipboard to the ground. They were then threatened with assault by the SWPer for this act of noncooperation. A trans person at a queer solidarity demonstration being threatened by a cis het man tells you everything you need to know about the SWP. The situation was eventually deescalated and he went off to recruit more people for his rape apologist club. The comrade was checked on by other members of the crowd and thanked for standing up to him.
As time moved forward and our numbers grew, the fascists did eventually show up, pushed back a fair distance down the way, outnumbered 250 to 12. In fact, they were so outnumbered, that we’ve heard reports that they tried to bribe members of the public £20 to stand with them! The mood of the crowd was generally jovial and relaxed, with no real chanting to be heard, which made sense given the children’s library was only a pane of glass away, any chanting or singing would have disrupted the event we had come to support! As the fascists started filtering through the pathway to film us and ‘just ask questions’, the crowd responded with general disinterest and noncooperation. Some members of the crowd asserted their non-consent to be being filmed by the fascists, but were roundly ignored. As we know, fascists are generally not big on consent. The protest remained largely peaceful despite provocations from the conspiracy theorists, which generally included a large assortment of homophobic language. As the protest wore on, their day ruined, the fascists got bored and fucked off, whilst counter-protestors enjoyed the Kaleidoscope exhibition on display at the library for LGBTQ history month, ironically getting far more attention than it might have if the fascists had just stayed home.
In conclusion, this was a terrible day out for the fascists and a successful day for counter-protestors. The community organised itself with remarkable speed and character, standing tall in defiance of those who wish for our non-existence. These conspiracy theorists will be back though on Saturday 25th February for round 2, so I hope to see you there. #LoveWins!
-L